The Russian military has quietly tested new ways of defeating Ukrainian air defense systems using Soviet-era AN-2 Colt biplanes.
It is worth mentioning that AN-2 is archaic agricultural aircraft that first flew in 1947, as the Soviet Union was rebuilding after the tumult of World War II.
The AN-2 is one of the largest single-engine biplanes ever produced. It was particularly prized for its versatility and extraordinary slow-flight, short takeoff, and landing capabilities. The AN-2 will allow simulating a breakthrough of a helicopter group or attack drones.
Russian forces reportedly are training to use antiquated biplanes as decoys to fly them to the front lines to draw out Ukrainian air defenses. Recent videos posted to social media have shown almost a dozen AN-2 aircraft in a close formation during an exercise in Russia’s border areas with Ukraine.

A similar approach was used during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijani military has converted an An-2 airplane into an unmanned aerial vehicle. Remote-control systems were taken the place of a human pilot in the cockpit of an airplane, replacing the crew with a kit that takes just a short time to install.
​According to a recent intelligence assessment, Russia has now assembled 70% of the military personnel and weapons on Ukraine’s borders he would need for a full-scale invasion of the country.

Roughly eight years since its construction began, the massive hangar located at the remote southern end of the Air Force's clandestine flight test center at Groom Lake, better known as Area 51, has seemed to have had little to no activity. Based on commercial satellite imagery and sporadic video taken by hikers from Tikaboo Peak dozens of miles away, there have never been more than a handful of vehicles nearby and nothing of significance in terms of infrastructure has been built up around it. Now, for the first time, satellite imagery from Planet Labs not only shows activity around the mysterious hangar, but the nature of that activity is a never-before-seen exotic delta-wing aircraft parked on its northern apron. 
We came upon this development after doing our regular scans of Planet Labs' low-resolution imagery of various locales of interest across the globe. Area 51 is always a popular spot when it comes to publicly available satellite imagery. When glancing at daily 3-meter resolution images of the base we noticed the appearance of a roughly delta-shaped blob on the north apron of the large southern hangar. The first shot that contained this object was dated January 26th, 2022. Since we had never seen any action around this hangar, we found it odd. Maybe it was a large group of vehicles or some sort of new construction? 

The blob remained there in Planet Labs' low-resolution imagery through the 28th. A high-resolution Planet Labs image, dated January 29th, 2022, told a much richer story — that the blob was actually an exotic delta-shaped aircraft under an unenclosed skeleton-like structure just sitting in the middle of the apron. 
The structure itself is a modular/temporary aircraft shelter — similar to the one below — with its rear wall up but its top covering not installed. These are very common structures used around the globe, especially by the U.S. military.
The aircraft in question measures roughly 65 feet long and 50 feet wide — about the size of a Su-27 Flanker — and has wings that are reminiscent of Concorde, with its elegantly curved 'ogival' leading edge. Even the mystery aircraft wing's trailing edges are curved, leading to almost scimitar-like wingtips that may be turned upward. Overall, the wings have a flowing, almost organic appearance. 

The aircraft has no discernable tail surfaces with what is likely its exhaust extending to the rear and blended with the curved trailing edges of the wings, providing something of a rear apex. Its forward fuselage tapers into what is most likely a pointed nose. There is no doubt about it, this is a fluid-looking design that would likely be very impressive to view close up. As to what it could be, we don't know. But the size and shape are broadly similar to notional Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) and 6th generation fighter-related concepts we have seen — for both the USAF and the Navy — which are depicted as heavy, tailless, low-observable tactical jets with modified delta-wing planforms. 
It has been officially disclosed that an NGAD demonstrator has been in flight testing for some time and has shown great promise, although the nature of this program remains widely misunderstood in the press. It is a family of systems, which will include long-range penetrating and possibly other unmanned combat air vehicles alongside what will likely be an optionally manned very-low observable platform that puts an emphasis on regional endurance and a sizeable payload, not high maneuverability, along with the latest in networking and sensor capabilities. This central tactical jet design could even come in two wing configurations. 
These optionally manned and unmanned NGAD platforms will be developed together with a number of ancillary technologies that will enable them to fight cooperatively. So the idea that NGAD is a new 'fighter' seems to be more of a legacy term used for familiarity's sake than accuracy. In fact, the manned portion of the program will likely need a new descriptor altogether, although tradition may stand in the way of that happening.

That is just one secretive program that we know exists and generally matches the description, but there are many others underway we do not know any firm details about. Area 51 has multiple programs of varying sophistication and maturity underway at any given time. Those related to high-speed flight and unmanned capabilities are very likely what's keeping the facility the busiest these days, as well as continued work in general low observable aircraft flight test and foreign materiel exploitation (FME) initiatives. 
The mystery aircraft's wing shape being so reminiscent of Concorde, along with what could be upturned 'rolled' wingtips, does seem to point to a highly efficient design that would have significant supercruise (flying beyond the speed of sound without the use of afterburner), if not outright very-high-speed capabilities. Development work in the high-speed flight realm has exploded in recent years, especially when it comes to hypersonic aircraft and missiles. Somewhat famously, Lockheed Martin's then CEO Marylin Hewson noted that the company could have an F-22-sized flying demonstrator for its hypersonic combined cycle engine ready for around $1B and in just a few years' time. That was back in 2016. What followed was a seemingly bizarre media push regarding the notional SR-72 hypersonic spy and attack drone. That initiative seems to have gone largely dark since then, but it is possible the aircraft we are seeing is that demonstrator. At least the size and timeline seem to fit. 
On top of that, the Air Force is currently pursuing a hypersonic flight test program known as Mayhem. Details about this project are limited, but we do know it is tied into work relating to advanced high-speed jet engines and is seeking to build demonstrators configured to perform strike and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. This is all very much in line with how Lockheed Martin had described its vision for the SR-72. 

Still, it isn't clear if the wing design seen in the satellite image would support such incredible speed, although there has been chatter for years about variable geometry wings for very high-speed aircraft, basically where the small wing extensions fold partially forward into the fuselage after takeoff and climb, greatly decreasing the span and basically leaving a highly-swept wedge-like diamond planform for very high-speed cruise. This would provide the best of both worlds and allow the aircraft to recover at speeds that would be feasible on large standard runways. 
However, these concepts have been batted around for years and while one can could see how it could work with this basic design, if the wingtips are upturned, it would make such a configuration seem like a remote possibility. Regardless, even a static-wing aircraft that can supercruise very efficiently at supersonic speeds would be a major capability advantage. 
Something related to efforts in developing and testing still mysteriously missing advanced unmanned combat air vehicles is also a possibility. Even at the highest levels, bringing these kinds of capabilities into an operational state is finally becoming a priority. Considering the increasing focus on advanced drone swarms, teaming, and infusion of AI into the air combat arena, this is likely a major focus of testing ongoing at the expanding base.


So, while the aircraft's planform matches most closely with NGAD's centerpiece platform, and we know for a fact that type is flying, we have no real idea if it is related to that program. We can't even say for certain what this aircraft's objectives are beyond what we can gather generally from its planform and our analysis is still in a very preliminary state. 
All that being said, we must underscore that spotting a totally new and exotic aircraft design in the open at Area 51 is largely unprecedented, and for very good reason. It is widely known that those who run the facility are masters at concealing what they need to conceal. The place literally wrote the book on clandestine flight test operations going back to the dawn of the U-2 spy plane. They know when every imaging satellite is passing over and refine their operations, much of which occurs under the cover of darkness, accordingly. 

Area 51 garners massive interest from the public as well as foreign countries, both allied and not, all of which have access to imaging satellite capabilities. In other words, they know they are being watched every single day overhead. While vague glimpses of mysterious objects in the shadows may have occurred, it's very unlike them to leave a highly-sensitive test article just sitting on a vacant apron for any imaging satellite or even onlooker from afar to gawk at. This prompts a very intriguing question—why was this airframe left out in the open at all? 
One could argue that the intention was for this aircraft to be seen. With all the strategic signaling going on these days, that would not be out of the realm of possibility. Certainly, similar sightings have occurred at foreign developmental airfields, but they are not the same as Area 51. In fact, considering where this happened and the facility's long record of perfection when it comes to hiding everything it needs to from satellites overhead, this would seem far more probable than possible.
One other idea that came to mind is that this could be one of the many long-retired prototype aircraft that are thought to be stored at Area 51 after their testing career has come to a close. They are the lucky ones, others are said to be buried all around the highly restricted grounds—too costly to declassify and no room for them to be stored. Due to the odd placement of the non-covered shelter, the only thing we can think of is maybe one of these planes is being used to test a new towable shelter system, but that really doesn't add up either. Those aircraft would still be undisclosed and they can just use one of the F-16s based there or another mundane aircraft to do that. 
As for what's in the big hangar nearby the mystery aircraft, we still have no idea. Its tall and elongated dimensions, as well as its secluded locale, have caused much speculation as to what it was built to hold, but its location may point to something of extreme sensitivity, both in terms of secrecy and potentially physical volatility.
Everything from some sort of new high-speed aircraft that may run on especially volatile fuel to a parasite two-stage-to-orbit mothership concept has been floated. What is clear is that the structure is very opposite of the wide and low-slung hangars commonly associated with subsonic low-observable aircraft, like stealth bombers and high-flying surveillance aircraft. Maybe it houses a mothership for which the aircraft we are seeing is lifted onto and is lofted into the air, similar to the WZ-8 concept. Once again, that would at least explain the hangar's high and elongated dimensions. We just don't know.

Some have also posited the hangar is a giant scoot-and-hide shelter designed to get test aircraft out of the view of satellites overhead prior to taking off and after landing. Building such a large and fully enclosed structure for that purpose seems odd, especially considering its size. A large vehicle that would make full use of it would have to live inside a hangar nearby at the main ramp anyway. Still, it's a possibility.
Finally, it's possible that what goes on inside is something of its own unique testing operation — some sort of static signature testing facility or another advanced diagnostic capability in a highly controlled and secure environment. Facilities of a similar nature exist at other far less reclusive test bases. But this too seems somewhat unlikely considering Area 51's focus on actual flight testing. Historically, that kind of work is done elsewhere. This reality also reduces the possibility that the aircraft we are seeing in the satellite image is some sort of a non-flying mockup.


In fact, the lack of any sort of significant activity or further development around the big southern hangar has also led to some speculation that whatever it was built for either failed or never even made it into testing at all. Such an assertion is hard to quantify considering much of the testing occurs at night at the base and it is quite an elaborate facility to build just to abandon, although that is certainly possible. Even so, that's not to say something hasn't taken its place in the better part of a decade since its completion.
So, while we may have a truly unprecedented satellite image to examine, that's about all we have at this point. The rest is just up to speculation. But still, this image serves as the rarest of visual reminders that amazing aviation history continues to be made out at America's most secretive air base. 
What do you think this aircraft's purpose is? Does it look like any concept art you have seen in the past? Let us know in the comments below!

The United States Navy is making arrangements to recover an F-35C fighter jet that fell into the South China Sea after an accident as the pilot attempted a landing on the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier.
The pilot ejected safely but was among seven military personnel who were hurt in the incident.


“I can confirm the aircraft impacted the flight deck during landing and subsequently fell to the water,” said Lieutenant Nicholas Lingo, spokesperson for the US Seventh Fleet.
“The US Navy is making recovery operations arrangements for the F-35C aircraft.”
Asked about an unsourced media report suggesting there were fears that the multimillion-dollar plane could fall into the hands of China, Lingo replied, referring to the People’s Republic of China: “We cannot speculate on what the PRC’s intentions are on this matter.”

The crash is the second involving an F-35 and an aircraft carrier in just over two months.
An F-35 from Britain’s HMS Queen Elizabeth crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in November, although the pilot ejected and was safely returned to the ship. Britain’s Ministry of Defence said that aircraft was subsequently recovered.
Earlier this month, a South Korean F-35A fighter made an emergency landing during training.


In April 2019, a Japanese F-35 stealth fighter crashed in the Pacific Ocean close to northern Japan, killing the pilot.
The incident is also the second involving the US military in the South China Sea.
In October, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Connecticut crashed into an underwater mountain injuring 11 sailors and damaging its forward ballast tanks. An investigation found the accident could have been prevented and the commanding officer was removed from his post.
China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, said the crash, which came as the US signed a deal to provide Australia with nuclear submarines, showed the dangers of foreign vessels operating in the waterway.


China has increasingly taken steps to assert its claim in recent years, building military facilities on outcrops and deploying its coast guard and maritime militia. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Taiwan also claim parts of the sea and China has refused to recognise a 2016 ruling from an international tribunal that its claim – based on the so-called nine-dash line – had no legal basis.
Monday’s F35 incident took place as two Carrier Strike Groups, led by the Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, with more than 14,000 sailors and marines, were conducting exercises in the South China Sea.
The military says the drills were to demonstrate the “US Indo-Pacific Command Joint Force’s ability to deliver a powerful maritime force.”

The pilot of a US F-35 jet ejected as his jet crashed on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, injuring seven, the US Pacific Fleet said in a statement Monday.

The pilot was conducting routine flight operations when the crash happened. They safely ejected and were recovered by a military helicopter, Pacific Fleet said. The pilot is in stable condition.
Six others were injured on the deck of the carrier. Three required evacuation to a medical facility in Manila, Philippines, where they are in stable condition, according to Pacific Fleet. The other three sailors were treated on the carrier and have been released.The cause of what the statement called a "inflight mishap" is under investigation.

​A spokesman for the Navy's 7th Fleet in Japan, Lt. Mark Langford, said Tuesday the impact to the Vinson's flight deck was "superficial" and the warship and its air wing had resumed normal operations.As for the F-35, "the status of the recovery is in progress," Langford said.
The crash is the first for an F-35C, the US Navy's variant of the single-engine stealth fighter, designed for operations off aircraft carriers.

The F-35A, flown by the Air Force, takes off and lands on conventional runways, and the F-35B, the Marine Corps version, is a short-takeoff vertical landing aircraft that can operate off the Navy's amphibious assault ships.
Versions of the F-35 are also flown by US allies and partners, including Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and Israel. More countries have orders in for the jet.
The US Navy variant "features more robust landing gear to handle carrier takeoffs and landings, folding wings to fit on a crowded flight deck, larger wings, a slightly larger payload, and a slightly longer operating range," according to the aircraft's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.
The F-35C was the last of the three variants to become operational, doing so in only 2019.
Carl Vinson was the first of the US Navy's 11 aircraft carriers to deploy with the F-35C when it left San Diego last August.
"This deployment marks the first time in U.S. naval aviation history that a stealth strike fighter has been deployed operationally on an aircraft carrier," Lockheed Martin said.
The addition of the F-35C to Carrier Air Wing 2 aboard Carl Vinson for its current deployment marks the first time a US carrier has flown with what the Navy calls its "air wing of the future," which also includes F/A-18E/F fighters, EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft, E-2D airborne early warning aircraft and CMV-22 tilt-rotor transports.

Monday's crash in the South China Sea was the second of an F-35 this year.
On January 4, the pilot of a South Korean F-35 made an emergency "belly landing" at an air base on Tuesday after its landing gear malfunctioned due to electronic issues, according to the South Korean Air Force.
In previous years, F-35s have been involved in at least eight other incidents, according to records kept by the crowdsourced website F-16.net.
Last November, a British F-35B crashed into the Mediterranean Sea off the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. The pilot ejected safely.
In May 2020, the pilot ejected safely when a US Air Force F-35 crashed on landing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The Air Force attributed the crash to a variety of factors involving the pilot and the plane's systems.
In April 2019, a Japanese F-35 crashed into the Pacific Ocean off northern Japan, killing its pilot. The Japanese military blamed that crash on spatial disorientation, "a situation in which a pilot cannot sense correctly the position, attitude, altitude, or the motion of an airplane," according to the journal Military Medicine.
When the latest crash occurred, Carl Vinson and its escorts were operating in the South China Sea along with the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group in dual-carrier operations that began on Sunday, according to Navy social media accounts.
The 1.3 million-square-mile South China Sea has been the site of frequent naval activity in the past several years as China has asserted its claims over almost all of the area by building up and militarizing islands and reefs.
The US military asserts its right to operate freely in what are international waters. Carrier deployments like the current one exercise those rights.
The two strike groups along with a Japanese helicopter destroyer staged a large exercise on Saturday in the Philippine Sea, the part of the Pacific Ocean between Taiwan and the US island territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.A day after that exercise, China sent 39 warplanes into Taiwan's self-declared air defense identification zone, the largest such incursion of Chinese warplanes into that zone this year.

In the blue skies over south-east England, young Pilot Officer John Hemingway felt completely alone. There may have been 3,000 aircrew who fought in the Battle of Britain, which began 80 years ago this week.
Yet thundering through summer skies surrounded by hundreds of Luftwaffe aircraft, the Hurricane pilot was sharply conscious he had only his own wits to rely on to stay alive.
“You need to appreciate, fighters had no crew, it was just you, a single fighter,” he explains.
“Squadrons got you into the battle, but in the battle, you did your own fighting.”
Today, Irishman John, known as Paddy, is, in the saddest sense, alone again – the only airman who fought in the Battle of Britain still alive.
The very last of Winston Churchill’s famous “few” about whom he said: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many.”

Around half of them lost their lives in the battle, which began on July 10, 1940. When John goes, the few will finally become none.
Now living in a care home in his native Dublin, set to turn 101 in one week’s time, he reflects on what he regards only as his “luck” to have survived the Battle of Britain, Adolf Hitler’s attempt to commandeer the skies before Operation Sealion – the planned Nazi invasion of Britain.


John was shot down twice during the three-and-a-half month battle and four times in total during the war. But he doesn’t enjoy sensationalising his part.
“Others write the history – we were doing our job,” he insists, recalling how emotion couldn’t come into it.
He says: “Everything happened very quickly but in slow motion during a dogfight. It was not a time for emotions, except for momentary anger. Too much emotion could be dangerous.

“And many a time you were too exhausted and drained to feel anything much, even fear. I just went on because every day, people were disappearing, new faces arriving, you didn’t know anybody, you were going into war with people you didn’t know.
“Do not forget, we were incredibly young, most of us were less than 23. So much was happening, it was just a matter of taking each day at a time.
“Death in combat is not democratic, you could never guarantee anything.”
He adds: “I am here because I have had some staggering luck and fought alongside great pilots in magnificent aircraft with ground crew in the best air force in the world.
“This was a long time ago and many are not here anymore. I am sad about that.”
​

This year has seen the final few falling fast.
In January, Wing Commander Paul Farnes, the last surviving ace of the battle, died aged 101. In May, Flight Lieutenant Terry Clark died soon after his 101st birthday.
The weight of legacy now weighs singly on John’s shoulders, but then he got used to that long ago.
The father of three and grandfather of seven was just a baby-faced 21 year-old when he took part in the Battle of Britain.
He had enlisted with the RAF in 1938, and saw action with 85 Squadron early over France.
By June 1940, back in England with the Squadron now under Group Captain Peter Townsend – later Princess Margaret’s lover – he was tasked with training inexperienced pilots.

In the early phases of the battle, the Luftwaffe concentrated on hitting ports and shipping routes in the Channel. But everything changed in August, when the Germans switched to attacking British airbases.
On August 18 – “the hardest day” when around 100 German and 136 British aircraft are believed to have been destroyed or damaged – John’s plane was hit by gunfire.
He was attacked by two aircraft over the North Sea and “started to spin”.
He recalls: “Everything in the cockpit was covered in oil, but the hood opened easily, and I could then see enough to regain control, at about 9,000ft.
“I set course for England, but my engine stopped. I had no wish to bail out, on the other hand I remembered that Hurricanes tipped up and sank when landed in the sea. In the event, I tried to climb out on the wing... but everything was so slippery I was blown straight off.


“My parachute opened perfectly, and I landed in the sea.”
John began to swim frantically “among jellyfish” until “a lifeboat bumped into me”. In fact, they had been searching for him for an hour and a half, and, deciding he could not survive the cold water, had turned back, only then knocking into him “rolling in the waves”.
Incredibly, John still managed to help them row back to shore.
Finally returning to his squadron two days later, he found himself surrounded by “unfamiliar faces” and discovered among the losses was a friend, Flight Commander Dickie Lee.
With rare emotion, he admits: “If anything affected me seriously, it was that. He was a wonderful person, I still say it, I still think it. And it was – you just did not believe. No, he was going to turn up. But he never did of course.”
Just eight days later, on August 26, John was shot down again.
An enemy formation of 15 Dornier 215s was flying at 15,000ft up the Thames and John’s squadron was scrambled to attack them head on. This time, cannon fire hit his engine.
​

“The hood opened easily, and I bailed out,” he recalls. “Remembering the enemy were shooting at parachutists, I did a delayed drop as far as the cloud before opening my parachute. I landed in Pitsea Marshes where the local Home Guard was, but I speak reasonably good English, so they didn’t shoot me.
“My sinus just about killed me for about four days.”
By September, the squadron was so decimated it was withdrawn.
John says: “Peter Townsend was in hospital, wounded, our commanders and their deputies were dead, and I think there were just seven of us still fully active out of the 18 starters.”
The RAF lost 1,250 aircraft in the battle, but their superior radar and flying technology helped them to victory.

He was saved by Italian partisans who smuggled him to safety dressed in peasant’s clothing. A local family lent him one of their children to walk him through a German checkpoint.
John survived the war and married wife Bridget. They had three children and she died in 1998. John retired from the RAF in 1969 as a Group Captain.
Pressed again how he managed to survive, John resists any acknowledgment of skill. Today, he maybe fragile, but that stiff upper lip remains firm. “Training gave you the right instincts to stay alive,” is all he will say.

A British F-35, one of the newest stealth fighter jets in the UK military, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday morning while operating off the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK Defense Ministry said in a tweet.

The pilot ejected and was returned safely to the ship, and an investigation of the incident, which occurred during routine flight operations, had begun, the ministry said.
Britain operates the F-35B, a single-engine, short-take-off vertical landing variant of the US-developed stealth jet, which cost about $115 million each to build.
In June, F-35s operating off the Queen Elizabeth flew combat missions over the Middle East against ISIS, the first combat action for a UK aircraft carrier in more than a decade.

With plans to acquire 138 F-35s, Britain would be the third-largest operator of the Lockheed-Martin produced jets, behind the United States and Japan.Both the US and Japan have lost F-35s to accidents.
In September 2018, a US Marine Corps F-35B crashed in South Carolina, the first-ever crash of an F-35.
In April 2019, a Japanese F-35A crashed into the Pacific Ocean off northern Japan, killing its pilot. The Japanese Defense Ministry later attributed that crash to spatial disorientation, meaning the pilot couldn't sense his surroundings adequately and essentially flew the stealth fighter straight into the ocean during the night training mission.
In May 2020, a US Air Force F-35A crashed in Florida during routine training, but the pilot ejected safely.
After the crash Wednesday, the manufacturer of the F-35's ejection seat, British company Martin-Baker, touted its hardware. "We've saved 7,662 air crew lives from around the world to date," the company said on its Twitter page. Martin-Baker's ejection seats are used on a range of aircraft, not just F-35s.
The British crash comes on the last leg of a voyage for Queen Elizabeth, leading what the UK calls Carrier Strike Group 21, that saw it go as far as Japan and South Korea to participate in exercises with allies and partners as the Royal Navy tries to increase its global presence.

When the strike group departed the UK in the spring, Britain's Ministry of Defense described it as the largest concentration of maritime and air power to leave British shores in a generation.
US and Dutch warships are part of the strike group, and 10 US Marine Corps F-35s have been operating off the Queen Elizabeth along with eight British stealth jets.
When a version of this carrier strike group sailed together during military exercises off Scotland last fall, the UK Defense Ministry said it carried "the largest concentration of fighter jets to operate at sea from a Royal Navy carrier since HMS Hermes in 1983."
It also said it was "the largest air group of fifth-generation fighters at sea anywhere in the world." Fifth-generation fighters are the most advanced warplanes in the air.There was no immediate word on whether the UK would try to recover the wreckage of the F-35 from the Mediterranean.
When the Japanese F-35 crashed in 2019, there was speculation the wreckage could be a target for potential adversaries such as Russia and China who could gain access to its advanced technology. But both the US and Japan dismissed that idea.

In a Facebook post from Wednesday afternoon, October 27, 2021, USAF Maj. Michelle Curran, call sign “Mace”, announced she is, “about to make a big career pivot and will be leaving the Active Duty Air Force in the new year”. Maj. Curran is widely known as a member of the U.S. Air Force Flight Demonstration Team, the Thunderbirds. She flies position #5, lead solo, one of the most visible positions on the team. This is Curran’s third season with the Thunderbirds.
During her three years of assignment with the Thunderbirds, she quickly established herself as a highly visible and positive influencer for the Air Force through innovative use of social media. Curran also provided unique and candid transparency about her career and personal life, effectively leveraging social media to bring airshow fans and aviation enthusiasts inside the world of a fighter pilot. Curran defined what it is to be a modern Air Force officer for many outsiders, providing a valuable insight into the Air Force experience and showcasing the opportunities of an Air Force career.

To understand why the Tomcat was so revolutionary, one must consider the context of its time. The U.S. Navy then operated the F-4 Phantom—a heavy aircraft powerful engines and sophisticated electronics for the time, but a bit of a clunker in a dogfight. The Navy was forced by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara into pursuing the troubled TFX program to create a plane that would serve both the Air Force and Navy. While the Air Force was able to adapt the TFX into the F-111 bomber, Navy Admiral Thomas “Tomcat” Connelly testified before Congress that the TFX was a disaster for carrier operations. The TFX carrier fighter was cancelled, and the Navy got to pursue its own design.
The Navy’s number one priority was to have a “fleet defense fighter.” While the U.S. Navy outgunned its Soviet counterpart, experience in World War II had demonstrated aircraft were a greater threat than opposing ships. Were the Cold War to have gone hot, formations of Soviet bombers would have descended on U.S. carrier task forces and unleashed enormous volleys of long-range cruise missiles from more than a hundred miles away.


A naval task force’s air defenses could shoot down only so many aircraft and cruise missiles. The Navy needed fast-moving interceptors to range ahead and take out as many of the bombers as possible, preferably at long distances using sophisticated missiles of their own. Such a conflict would have been a brutal contest of attritional arithmetic.
However, recent combat experience in Vietnam had shown that U.S. Navy fighters also needed to be capable of winning air superiority—that is, defeating an opponent’s fighter planes. Dogfights between American F-4 Phantoms and North Vietnamese MiG-21s had demonstrated that high speed and long-range missiles were not enough—an air superiority fighter needed to be maneuverable as well. While the U.S. Navy Top Gun school demonstrated that using proper Air Combat Maneuvering tactics made a big difference, having a more agile plane than the F-4 was still desirable.

The Tomcat’s twin TF30 turbofans allowed them to attain speeds of Mach 2.34. However, they provided inferior thrust to the F-15, which came into service shortly after the Tomcat, and the fan blades and compressors were prone to catastrophic breakdowns. Thus, later-model Tomcats were refitted with the F110 engines used in the F-16, causing a dramatic improvement in the Tomcat’s thrust-to-weight ratio.
The Tomcat’s nose held an AWG-9 X-band pulse-doppler radar with one of the first microprocessors ever, one of the most powerful fighter-mounted radars at the time. The AWG-9 could detected bombers up to one hundred miles away, was still effective against targets flying at low altitude, and was capable of tracking twenty-four contacts at a time. The AWG-9 also had sufficient resolution to track cruise missiles and shoot them down. The Tomcat was also the only Western fighter of its generation to have an internal Infrared Search and Track sensor, the ALR-23. This was later replaced by an electro-optical sensor with a sixty-mile range that integrated its data with the AWG-9.


Most importantly, the AWG-9 could provide guidance for the Tomcat’s powerful AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, up to four of which were normally mounted under the belly. These were central to the F-14’s ability to defend the fleet. One of the most sophisticated and expensive air-to-air missiles fielded by the United States, the Phoenix could hit targets over 120 miles distant traveling at speeds up to Mach 5. The sophisticated radar and missiles were operated by the backseater on the F-14, known as the Radio Intercept Officer (RIO).
The Tomcat could theoretically fire up to six Phoenix missiles in rapid succession at different targets—an ability that was actually tested once. The result? Four hits out of six launches.
​

Tomcats usually carried larger numbers of more conventional AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles and medium-range AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided missiles. The F-14 also had a twenty-millimeter cannon, a feature Navy Phantom fighters lacked. However, like the early models of the F-15 entering in service at the time, the F-14 was a pure air-to-air platform and was not built to carry air-to-ground munitions.
All in all, the Tomcat was fast enough to intercept Soviet bombers, had radar and missiles capable of detecting and shooting them down over long distances, and the maneuverability to dogfight and defeat agile enemy fighters. This combination of capabilities became the gold standard of a new generation of aircraft including the F-15 and Su-27. Additionally, the Tomcat of course had the reinforced landing gear and arrestor hook necessary for carrier operations.

The Navy chose to skip the prototype phase, so production of the F-14 began in 1969 in Bethpage, in Long Island, New York. A total of 712 were ultimately produced through 1991.


The Tomcat entered operational service in 1974 with the VF-1 and VF-2 squadrons on the USS Enterprise. Some even flew cover for the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, though none actually saw combat during the Vietnam War. Over the course of the Cold War, Navy F-14s routinely intercepted Soviet bombers and maritime patrol planes shadowing U.S. carrier groups, and frequently posed for photo ops with their Communist counterparts.
Frequent cat-and-mouse games between Libyan aircraft and Tomcats on freedom-of-navigation missions proved considerably tenser, with numerous near launches of weapons—and several incidents in which they were released.


In August 19, 1981, two F-14s flying with VF-41 on board the USS Nimitz were escorting an S-3 Viking patrol plane that had crossed into contested airspace when they were intercepted by two Libyan Air Force Su-22s. One of the Su-22s fired an AA-2 heat-seeking missile at the lead Tomcat, which successfully evaded. The Tomcats then returned fire with Sidewinders and splashed both Libyan fighters, in what became known as the Gulf of Sidra incident.
Eight years later in January 1989, two Libyan MiG-23s confronted F-14s from the USS Kennedy, again over Sidra. This time, the American fighters fired first, and after missing with several Sparrow missiles, shot down both Libyan aircraft with a Sparrow and a Sidewinder.
Navy F-14s also provided air cover for the many air strikes undertaken by the U.S. Navy in the Gulf during the 1980s, and also were involved in forcing down an Egyptian airliner carrying PLO agents that had earlier hijacked the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro and murdered an elderly Jewish man.
Back in 1987, the Navy began received thirty-eight F-14B Tomcats, and also upgraded forty-eight F-14As to the new standard. The F-14B featured the same F110 engines as on the F-15, which significantly improved the Tomcat’s thrust-to-weight ratio. The AWG-9 radar was replaced with a superior digital version, the APG-70. New ALR-67 countermeasure systems enhanced the F-14’s ability to evade hostile missiles.
GPS was included to supplement the inertial navigation systems formerly relied upon. In 1991 the last variant of the Tomcat, the F-14D came into service with a digital “glass” cockpit and APG-71 radars and better integration of air-to-ground munitions. Over the opposition of Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, thirty-seven of the new type were manufactured and eighteen refitted from F-14As.

During the 1991 Gulf War, Navy Tomcats largely missed out on the combat. Relegated to patrol duties, the F-14s lacked systems to definitively confirm the identity of hostile aircraft at long range and were hampered by a lack of coordination between the Navy and Central Command. Iraqi fighters also shied away from engagements with Tomcats. The Tomcat’s only aerial victory in the war, and the last it achieved in U.S. service, was a hapless Iraqi Mi-8 transport helicopter. One Tomcat did get shot down by an old Iraqi SA-2 surface-to-air missile, however; one of the crew was rescued and other was captured and released at the end of the conflict.
With the passing of the Cold War, massive aerial battles no longer seemed to be on the table, and a pure air-superiority airplane was suddenly short on stuff to do. Tomcats did patrol the no-fly zone over Iraq and Yugoslavia and escorted bombers during Operation Desert Fox. However, the Navy began modifying Tomcats to serve in the ground-attack role by mounting LANTIRN pods equipped with a targeting laser. Tomcats performed their first bombing mission over Bosnia to in 1995, and later made additional airstrikes over Iraq and Yugoslavia.
In their final two wars, the intervention in Afghanistan and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Navy Tomcats dropped hundreds of thousands of pounds of bombs, including GPS-guided JDAMs. In the latter conflict, Tomcats provided air support for a mixed force of Kurdish peshmerga fighters and U.S. Special Forces that defeated a company of Iraqi armor in the Battle of Debecka Pass—though tragically, a target misidentified from the ground led the F-14s to accidentally kill many peshmerga fighters. Other targets hit by F-14s included the Salman Pak radio relay transmitter facility used by the Iraqi propaganda ministry and Saddam Hussein’s personal yacht.


This brings us to the sad fate of the retired Navy F-14s. Initially placed in storage, the Tomcats were literally shredded and crushed so as to prevent them from serving as a source of spare parts for Iran.
The Tomcat entered service shortly before the F-15 Eagle, an aircraft poised to remain in service for years to come. Did the Tomcat need to go so early?
In fact, several different “Super Tomcats” were proposed to the Navy that would have thoroughly modernized the aging avionics and made it fully capable as a multirole fighter. One variant, the Attack Super Tomcat 21, would even have featured an advanced AESA radar, vector-thrust engines (the engines nozzles could change pitch to improve maneuverability), and the ability to supercruise at Mach 1.2—that is, sustain flight speeds over the speed of sound without using the afterburner.
However, the Navy chose instead to field the F-18E/F Super Hornet. The Hornet airframe was not quite as optimized for air-to-air combat, but still delivered excellent performance, was based on fly-by-wire technology, and cost less money and time to fly and maintain. The choice between investing in a Super Tomcat or fielding the Super Hornet inevitably involved a trade-off, and the Super Hornet simply came out ahead in the Navy’s calculus.
Nonetheless, the Tomcat did prove itself to be one of the great American fighters of its era—in the hands of both the U.S. Navy and the Iranian Air Force.

“I love flying the A-10,” he said in a recent Air Force press release. “Even after 32 years, it hasn’t gotten old. The technology has changed over time and our adversaries’ threats have also changed. You can’t sit still. You have to adapt and improve.” 
Not only does he have a high quantity of flight time in his logbooks, but Marks also has high-quality time as well. His action in combat during the Gulf War in 1991 is one of the reasons why the A-10, also called the Warthog, is the most beloved close air support platform in the U.S. arsenal. On February 25th, 1991, the second day of the ground war, he and his wingman Capt. Eric “Fish” Salomonson set a record after destroying 23 Iraqi tanks in one day over the course of three missions.
“We got a bunch of backslaps when we got back, which was great, because we didn’t even expect any of that,” Marks told reporters when he and Salomonson were interviewed about their kill count in 1991. It was also a blast for the crew chiefs who maintain the jets, each of whom had a tally board for how many kills their jets have scored.

“They were all pretty happy with that,” Marks said. 
At the time, Marks was a lowly lieutenant with only about 750 hours in the A-10, about a tenth the total he has now. But the Gulf War was far from the end of Marks’ 1,150 hours of combat time. In 2014, he used “every skill [he] ever learned as an A-10 pilot” to help a coalition unit get out of “an intense troops-in-contact situation where they were nearly surrounded by Taliban” fighters in Afghanistan’s Kunar Valley, he said. In 2018, he and Brad “Roadie” Jones also killed an entire force of elite Taliban ‘Red Unit’ fighters at night. With a record like that, Marks’ colleagues had a hard time describing just how much of a baller Marks is at flying ‘Hogs.
“7,000 hours. 3,610 sorties. 358 combat sorties in the A-10 … just incredible,” said Lt. Col. Ryan Hodges, the commander of the 303rd Fighter Squadron, when he presented Marks with a plaque commemorating his 7000-hour milestone. “No words can describe the caliber of leader and fighter pilot we have in our squadron.”
“Let’s just say I’m glad he is on our side,” said Col. Michael Leonas, commander of the 442nd Operations Group.



Despite his achievements, Marks doesn’t seem to have the arrogant swagger that fighter pilots sport in movies like “Top Gun.” When preparing for his milestone flight, Marks insisted that he fly with the youngest guy in the squadron, Lt. Dylan Mackey. Marks has been flying A-10’s longer than Mackey’s been alive, but Mackey’s father, Brig. Gen. “Jimmy Mac” Mackey, is a retired A-10 pilot who Marks flew with often throughout his career.
“It was pretty special to fly my 7,000th hour with his son Dylan today,” Marks said. “Dylan’s parents were both able to attend today and it was great to see them again.”

Marks’ flight with Mackey might also symbolize his role as a mentor within the 442nd Fighter Wing community.
“He is an outstanding attack pilot; he loves to fly, and his knowledge is an invaluable resource for the squadron,” said Brig. Gen. Mike Schultz, the wing commander. “If you stick around on a Friday afternoon, you may even hear a war story or two.”


“He is one of the best fighter pilots in the Combat Air Force and to be able to say I flew with the longest flying A-10 pilot in the world is something I’ll remember forever,” he said. “Karl has so many tricks up his sleeve that I’m just trying to hang on and absorb everything I can. You are always guaranteed to learn something new flying with him.”
The respect is mutual.
“The quality and caliber of fighter pilots in today’s force keeps me young, keeps me humble, and motivates me daily,” Marks said.



Best of all, Marks, who first started flying during the Cold War (where he got his call sign “Karl,” though now he’s called “Cuda” when he’s airborne), doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.
“I have at least three more years of flying until my current mandatory retirement age. I am hoping to extend that further to age 62 if the Air Force lets me,” he said. “It’s been a wild ride and I still have some flying yet to do.”

For the first time in modern history, cameras were allowed to enter the cockpit of a B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber flying a nuclear alert training mission.
FIlmed by Dallas-based film producer Jeff Bolton, who recently filmed aboard a flying B-2A Spirit bomber, the new video, available at JeffBolton.org, provides a quite rare and interesting view of an aircrew from the 96th Bomb Squadron (based on the shoulder patch worn by one of the pilots) with the 2nd Bomb Wing out of Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, as it carries out a simulated nuke attack.


Although quite short, the clip shows several interesting details: the nuclear weapons panel, the front panel and the nav station and, above all, it provides a glimpse at the rare Polarized Lead Zirconium Titanate (PLZT, pronounced “plizzit”) used by the B-52 pilots to protect their eyes from injuries caused by the initial thermal flash from a nuclear blast. It’s probably the first time I see these goggles worn in-flight.
As explained in details by Nathan Finneman in an article published by Flightgear On-line (one of the most famous websites among flight helmets collectors and one of my personal favorites on this topic for years), nuclear detonations would cause “Flash blindness” making extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a pilot, to handle the aircraft for some time. Just imagine the impact of a temporary blindness on an aircrew flying in hostile environment who are not able to read instruments and operate systems.
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Ok, with all the required background information provided above and without further ado, let’s have a look at Jeff Bolton’s B-52 clip (BTW if you find some other interesting detail I may have missed, please let me know!)